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Computer-mediated tutoring

IntroductionThis paper is a qualitative case study inquiry project that examines the role computer-

mediated tutoring could play in teacher training as well as providing assistance to a writing

center. For the qualitative case study, a Turkish student with advanced English skills and hopes

of attending law school was the subject of this study. For the inquiry portion of the project, the

San Francisco State University (SFSU) English Tutoring Center (ETC) was chosen as the site for

this pilot project that would potentially enhance their ability to reach more tutors and tutees as

well as train them in computer-mediated tutoring. Various needs analysis and skills

assessments were given to the tutee. Other data from the tutee included expository essays that

she had written, as well as informal and formal surveys. I obtained various tutoring pamphlets

and outreach material from the ETC as well as interviewing the tutoring coordinator and staff

manager. SFSU MA TESOL graduate students who have taken a class on utilizing technology in

TESOL and have also participated in their own computer-mediated (CM) tutoring were surveyed

on their experience and interest in this. Finally, as the researcher for this project, I have kept

various notes and reflections on my experiences in CM tutoring.

Context

The SFSU ETC offers tutoring services to SFSU students at their center on campus. All of

their tutors are volunteers, many of them graduate students from the Composition MA and

Certificate programs at SFSU. For this semester, there were 36 tutors who assisted 68 students

who were referred by 25 different writing instructors. The Coordinator of the ETC is James

Warren Boyd and the ETC staff manager Tyler Heid. Mr. Boyd has been assisting at the center

Douglas Cronyn Computer-mediated Tutoring ENG 724 Tech for TESOL 1

since 1994 and worked there for the past 11 years. Mr Heid has been working there for 3

months, but been working at the ETC for 3 months, but been with the department for 3 years.

They estimate that 80% of their tutees are “Gen 1.5” students whose parents were immigrants.

Another 10% are estimated to be ESL students, with a final 10% native speakers. Some of their

biggest challenges have been budget cuts which has limited the number of paid personnel.

Consistently, they have more tutees than tutors. This past semester, they had an estimated 20

tutees that they were unable to place on account of not having enough tutors. This pilot project

study hopes in some way to help alleviate that need.

Rationale for this study and methodology

Based on availability, relevance, and interest, the San Francisco State University English

Tutoring Center (ETC) was determined to be the best location for this study on computer-

mediated tutoring of ESL students. Structurally, it became apparent that a qualitative case

study would be the best framework to frame this inquiry. From there, this study sought to

position the ETC in historical terms, with the growth of these types of writing centers nationally

that help ESL students. Finally, this study analyzes the plight of a singular ESL student and her

particular needs, how these could best be met through a computer distance learner tutoring

model, achieving possible best practices for this. This literature review looks at some of the

theory and questions driving this inquiry, as well as providing a framework for the coming

project.

Needs analysis and data collection

There are three primary stakeholders in this study: the ETC, the tutee, and tutors

(myself included). I determined the needs of the ETC through interviews with the coordinator


and student managers of the center as well as reading some of their literature. From this, I

determined that the primary need of the ETC is to reach more tutors and tutees, especially

tutors. For the tutee, I conducted her needs analysis through preliminary interviews and

ongoing assessments. Her primary need was to improve her writing and speaking skills. The

final group for which I conducted a needs analysis is the tutors. For this, I surveyed students in

my technology for TESOL class at SFSU about their experiences with computer-mediated

tutoring. Supplemental to all of the above analysis, I conducted a literature review on

computer-mediated tutoring to provide a greater context and to illuminate possible areas of

discovery.

Literature Review: Computer-mediated ESL tutoring

Why I chose the Qualitative Case Study Model

As a means to further investigation as well as an ends in recognizing the needs of an

individual learner and setting, the qualitative case study in the best methodology for this

inquiry. Although the study is necessary limited due to a small sample size and single locale, I

determined that the ability of this framework to give a complex picture of learner needs was

the best theoretical framework. “The purpose [of case study] is to understand the complexity

and dynamic nature of the particular entity…In complex nonlinear systems [as in SLA], the

behavior of the whole emerges out of the interaction of the parts” (Duff, 2008, p. 32)

Educational research is littered with instances of an inability to capture the complexity of

difficulty surrounding control variables, classrooms, students, and teachers operating within a

unique environment which can make scientific inference difficult. But, in contrast to that, for a


number of reasons elaborated upon later in this paper, tutoring in a writing center makes for a

unique and promising context in case study. questions. “Fortunately, WC staff, because of their

humanistic training, their valuing of teaching and service, and their intensive day-to-day work,

are already oriented to carry out case studies as well as survey research of L2 writers’

perceptions of and level of satisfaction with their tutors’ strategies.” (Williams & Severino, p.

170, 2004) The case study is also uniquely positioned to allow for postmodern and identity

theory that privileges the role of the individual, taking in to account various socio-cultural

factors that impact the findings of a study such as this one (Duff, 2008, p. 18).

Writing Centers Historically

While much current pedagogical, and especially SLA, theory, highly values a

communicative approach to learning and teaching, writing center have had some difficulty in

achieving these standard, as well as ones surrounding related issues of hierarchy and power

between student and teacher/tutor (Weigle, S. & Nelson, G., 2004; Jones, R., Garralda, A., &

Lock, G., 2006). Historically, writing centers have been on college campuses since the 1930s.

But, while they were previously “identified with remediation,” it was not until the 1990s that

they became more concerned with ESL learners. Important differences developed between

these differing populations, including the ability to “develop a sense of what ‘sounds right’”

(Williams & Severino, 2004, p. 167). Adding to the complication is the emergence of

“generation 1.5” learners and speakers who have a sometimes complex relationship with

English and their parents’ language. Other problems for ESL learners in the general writing

center context are native speaker dominance by their tutors and significant attention being

spent in the “diagnostic phase” of the tutorial. Also, Williams and Severino found complexities


in the usefulness of tutee L1 error analysis and whether the tutor should use the L1 of the tutee

in providing feedback, an issue also prevalent in other SLA theory contexts.

Distance versus in person tutoring

In returning to the earlier theme of successfully recruiting and training that tutors in ETC,

many researchers see vast differences between teaching in person and distance teaching

(Guichon, 2009), (Compton, 2009),(Hampel & Stickler, 2005). “Distance in education provokes a

fundamental change, leading instructors to adopt the role of a tutor instead of a teacher.”

(Guichon, 2009, p. 168) In an interesting table showing the types of difficulties encountered by

trainees, only the category of “difficulty in managing time” was seen by Guichon as being a

problem both for trainees of language teaching and online teaching. Problems linked with

language teaching included difficulties in: “explaining cultural aspects…designing activities

adapted to the pedagogical objectives…organizing an information gap activity with documents…

foreseeing the complexity of each activity and determining adapted objectives.” Meanwhile,

problems linked with online teaching included difficulties in: “managing one’s own anxiety due

to technical failings…starting the dialogue with the learners because of distance…assessing the

learners comprehension of an activity because of distance…managing several modalities

(written and oral) at once.” (Guichon, 2009, p. 177) Mostly this is contextualized around

premises of whether teachers can accurately reflect upon their practice through being

confronted with videotaping of their lessons, developing a “metacompetence.” A possible

danger in these cross-overs of distance and traditional teaching can possibly “hinder their

apprenticeship by focusing their attention on technical aspects to the detriment of pedagogical

ones.” (Guichon, 2009, p. 171)


Of particular import in this discussion is the different or additional training needed by the

distance teacher or tutor. Compton (2009) stresses the need for “implementing early virtual

experiences and virtual practicum” (p. 92) in a teacher training program. The ETC could

theoretically provide just such a place for this training, especially around cultivating aspects of

the communicative approach to language teaching common in the modern classroom. “The

tutor will need to take extra care to provide opportunities for disclosure of personal

information and feedback “ (Hampel & Stickler, 2005, p. 318) Techniques for providing

important peer exchange and feedback between tutors need also be addressed. “All too often,

however, peer exchange tends to be used for troubleshooting, looking for particular answers to

a problem rather than disseminating good practice up front” (Hampel & Stickler, 2005, p. 322).

Other Contrast Between Distance and Face to Face Tutoring in SLA

But, this study also looks to recognize some of the inherent difficulties in tutoring in this

context, including: the perceived superficiality of online relationships; problems in face, lip, and

body reading to provide context; technical glitches that especially distort lip reading or even

providing contact in the first place; as well as problems in organizationally getting small groups

of learners without fixed schedules to agree upon meeting times in disparate time zones for

tutors working in the international arena (Sun, 2011) In a setting such as the ETC, it may be

particularly difficult to convince tutors or tutees to meet online when the benefits of learning

face-to-face are so easily apparent, including, seemingly, issues around rapport, clarity, and

convenience.

But, these apparently significant challenges to recruitment and a positive work

environment are challenged on several research fronts. Some of this research contesting the


ideas that in person tutoring is better than computer mediated tutoring attacks this idea socio-

culturally, including multiple studies which seem to indicate that online environments are more

non-hierarchical and student-centered than in person tutoring (Jones et al.,2006; Zwaard, &

Bannick, 2014; Weigle, 2004), though extra care must be given to build and maintain rapport in

an online environment. Also, interestingly, the personalized, small group, multidimensional

nature of online tutoring carries many advantages for modern students and teachers used to

the online virtual environment (Sun, 2011) and language teaching theory that privileges this

sort of small group work and personalized or virtual environments. Others see the institutional

setting itself as a barrier to tutor innovation within the writing center context, leading to such

issues as teacher-centeredness (Jones, et al., 2006; Hampel, & Stickler, 2005).

Language and Culture Analysis in Computer-mediated tutoring

Of final note for this literature study is that of the role of specific language and culture

issues in distance tutoring. The necessity of promoting social presence has already been alluded

to (Hampel & Stickler, 2005; Zwaard & Bannick, 2014). A related theory are also concepts

around the creation of the “illusion of anonymity” that Zwaard & Bannick (2014) found in

utilizing chat in computer-mediated tutoring, that allowed for more shy individuals, to better

express themselves. This is illustrated as being similar to that experienced by “the partition

between priest and confessor in a Catholic confessional box, with the psychoanalyst’s couch

facing the other way, or the rearview mirror in a taxi: all create the illusion of relative

anonymity which makes for less communication apprehension and more uninhibited

communication” (p. 145). One variation on this that I am currently conducting is whether to

have spates of only audio during my Google hangouts, seeing if the lack in video allows for less


distraction and perhaps pressure than that in a video call. Also, of similar interest, are

previously touched upon ideas of “equality thru distance” that Guichon (2009) touched upon,

where the computer mediation in tutoring provides for greater feelings of equality between

tutor and tutee. These feelings of anonymity and equality could also bring similar feeling of

safety, especially in cross-cultural or perhaps cross-gender tutoring, though this hypothesis

could use more investigation and analysis.

Tutoring Journal: Documenting the tutoring process

The Start up: Getting a good match

This section of the paper is my personal reflections upon the process of tutoring my

tutee, from the initial assignment to finding a good platform for doing the tutoring through

various successes and failures at this.

My online “computer-mediated” tutoring has gone through various distinct phases in its

development. This has included the process of just initially getting the project off the ground.

This beginning phase is of critical importance, finding the right fit and opportunity. Discovering

more about, and becoming more proficient in, online ESL/EFL tutoring was a significant reason

for my taking the English 724 Tech for TESOL class at San Francisco State University (SFSU). I

recognize the prominent role that online tutoring is taking in ESL/EFL, connecting up teachers

and students from across the globe. Finding a good platform for this is an important step. While

I initially considered going through a tutoring service where I would be financially compensated,

I decided that it would be better to first learn some basic technical and pedagogical skills with a

voluntary experience that allows more room for trial and error. Also, my impression was that


getting hired on to one of these sites could take precious time which I could not afford. But, an

investigation of these paying platforms will be an important step to take in the future, of

economic and professional relevance.

Initially, I was drawn toward doing online tutoring with some groups in Afghanistan after

learning about them in my Tech for TESOL class. Unfortunately, though I submitted the various

pieces of paperwork and have already undergone a background check through the United State

Department of Justice in getting my teaching credential, I was unsuccessful in either hearing

back from or being accepted in to either of the organizations to which I applied. After not

hearing from them for two weeks, I decided to see about working with the SFSU English

Tutoring Center (ETC), where I had volunteered with the previous semester and enjoyed my

experience there. Both the director James and Tyler were interested in working with me. The

ETC office is also conveniently located on the SFSU campus in the Humanities building where all

of my classes are. I found it to be a comfortable space with a pleasant relaxed atmosphere

where I could perhaps make a positive impact on their program. Also, after having had previous

setbacks in working with other campus entities on campus in observing their technology

practices, I decide to not only do my tutoring through the SFSU ETC, but also to conduct my

final project for the Tech for TESOL class with them.

Working with the English Tutoring Center

In less than one week after requesting an online tutor with them, the ETC was able to

find 2 students for me to tutor, one of which I decided to tutor. I had some contact with the

tutee, who I shall call Natalia, before our first meeting, where I found out that she was of

Turkish origin, allowing me to do some research before our first meeting about common areas


of interference/transfer from her native language. Two resources that were useful at this point

in the study were Pronunciation Practice Activities, by Martin Hewings, and Learner English, by

Swan, M. & Smith, B. (2004) (pp. 214-226). The first resource contained simple explanations for

interference/transfer for pronunciation issues from Turkish to English. The second resource

contained a more complex historical and linguistic explanation of the differences that could be

of particular use to me as my ability to linguistically contrast languages becomes better. I have

recently determined that this sort of linguistic analysis and training could be a promising means

to a more thorough grasp of error analysis, a means to language acquisition, as well as a

possible way for more advanced tutees and/or students to improve their English skills.

Meeting with the tutee

With the preliminary research in hand, as well as interview questions that I had gleaned

from my Tech for TESOL class, I met with Natalia at the SFSU Leonard Library for our first

meeting. This session’s main purpose was to build rapport, ascertain tutee needs, and assess

reading and speaking skills. From this meeting, I came to find that she had been in the United

States for approximately 5 years, is married to an Indian-American, is a political science major

with her eyes on international relations or law in the future. She has long term plans to live in

the United States, looking for a home to purchase with her husband. In keeping with the ethics

of a research project like mine, I informed her of her right to anonymity, that a pseudonym

would be used.

From these preliminary assessments, I found that Natalia’s English speaking skills are

quite good, based on her response to formal and informal questions. Though, she does have an

interest in becoming “native-like” in her proficiency, a goal that I explained could be difficult to


achieve. Some of her rather minor pronunciation issues were with pronouncing /v/ as /w/, /I/

as /iy/ (/i/), and /ɑ/ as /ɔ/. I assured her that none of these affected her ability to be

understood. She did not want a “cute” accent. For her fluency response answers, I detected no

inability for her to express complex opinions, nor cultural inhibitions in this same arena. There

were some issues in stress for her speech, but nothing that was pronounced nor that I can

easily help her to mend. For her reading of a passage, I am unclear at this point whether it

measured reading or speech, but in consulting with Dr. Abeywickrama on this subject, I can see

that reading out loud only tests pronunciation skills, not reading skills, though this idea does

conflict with reading assessments that I have given to primary students, including the DRA

reading assessment. Noted scholar Dr. David Olsher has recommended utilizing CMPST for such

academic level assessment in the future.

Our first tutoring session concluded with us determining that writing proficiency and

some minor speech issues would be the primary areas to concentrate on for our future sessions

together. For the writing, she would send me 2 essays that she had already submitted in her

politics and philosophy classes. We discussed the idea that any feedback that professors had

given her would be very useful in me helping her. We agreed to continue meeting for one hour

per week on Wednesday evenings, a convenient time for the both of us.

Tutoring session 2

The week two tutoring session was the first one conducted over Skype. We had some

communication through e-mail in the time between tutoring sessions, but I am not sure

whether this can be considered tutoring, though it was computer mediated. Though, I did


receive and send the copies of the essays that she sent back to me, with possible places for

correction.

The second session began with her being on the bus, returning to her house in San Jose.

This is an interesting possible instance to highlight the way that computer-mediated tutoring

can be more convenient than conventional face-to-face tutoring, though the making of

mutually acceptable times for students and tutor/teacher to meet has been mentioned as a

significant challenge in international tutoring/teaching. Much of this second session consisted

in us looking over the 2 essays that Natalia had sent to me and I had returned with possible

suggestions. From this study, we determined that there were a few issues in particular that

needed some attention, including: phrasal verbs such as “based on” and “point out;” utilizing

“as” instead of “is” in some cases; and countability in words such as “research.” We had an

interesting discussion around her using the word “should” to mean something similar to “if.”

After some discussion, we realized that this comes from her using “should” as something of a

formal or British interpretation, but that is somewhat marked when used in conventional

American English usage, the offending sentence being, “according to him, it is in fact morally

wrong for utilitarianism, should we stop using nonhumans for biomedical researches.” The

previously alluded to countability of “research” is also noted here. When queried, Natalia

informed me that “research” is countable in Turkish.

Toward the end of this second session, we decided to utilize Google Hangouts as our

video based platform for the next session, since Natalia is quite familiar with this platform in

calling her friends and family in Turkey. She also has a g-mail account, as do I, and is

comfortable with utilizing Google docs, which I would also like to utilize more of in the future.


Also, we decided that for the next session she would send me 2 more essays to look at with her

and we could do some more assessments, in what is something of a common feature of ESL/EFL

tutoring, this protracted time spent in the “diagnostic phase.”

The Third Session

The third session was the first one conducted through Google Hangouts. We also

decided to see what it would be like to block the video for parts of the tutoring session, during

times when we would be reading documents to see if this would create less of a distraction.

Unfortunately, this session was the first one that was plagued by significant technical issues. In

other sessions, we did occasionally have “echoing” when we spoke, the speaker hearing their

words echoed back to them. That happened frequently in this session, as well as a couple of

dropped connections and asynchronous synchronicity where speaker and speaking did not

mesh, the kind of issue which can be very detrimental for speaking and listening exercises. We

tried to correct this by calling back and then transferring over to Skype. I also asked my

roommate to cease using Netflix. Natalia also shifted over to using her smartphone instead of

her computer, which ameliorated the situation somewhat.

Eventually, the situation became bearable and I was able to conduct another

pronunciation assessment from the my English 731 class, as well as a “Diagnostic Passage and

Accent Checklist” from the same source. As before, we found that her pronunciation had few

errors. There were some issues in placement of stress, but nothing that inhibited fluency. From


the previously mentioned diagnostic passage, it came to light that Natalia had been minimally

exposed to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). I extracted various IPA charts that I had in

my files to show her for reference. She showed some interest in this and I sent her these charts

for her to look at, along with some explanations of interpreting them. For somebody as

advanced academically as Natalia is, her exposure to this could be useful or at least interesting

for her. The diagram that I sent to her include the entire IPA chart with the English sounds

highlighted; a labelled diagram of the mouth, throat, and tongue; an IPA chart of all of the

English consonants; an IPA diagram of English vowels: and a list of the IPA symbols in context,

used in various words. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Final sessions and tutee feedback

The concluding three sessions had no significant practical or theoretical departures from

the first three. No significant technological problems were present as was the case in session

three. We continued to utilize Google Hangouts, became more comfortable in the format, and

thus became more proficient. These experiences re-enforced previous ideas that this platform

is the best one to conduct these sessions, an important conclusion of this report.

One important addition over the course of the final few sessions was the tutee feedback

that I received at the completion of our time together. These questions can be seen in Appendix

3 of this paper. Natalia reported that all of the activities were useful, specifically noting going

over papers and pronouncing difficult words. She enjoyed the length of our sessions, usually an

hour in length, since they afforded the opportunity for receiving more feedback and answering

more questions. She reported no difference in feelings of equality or comfort in meeting online

as opposed to our initial meeting in person. This surveying of her feedback could possibly have


been conducted in a more methodical and scientific manner to have more conclusive and useful

data from the tutee, something which could be improved in future studies.

Discussion and further feedback from graduate students and ETC: 2 other

primary stakeholders

English Tutoring Center interview

As two of the other primary stakeholders in this pilot project, it is important to further

consider two of the other stakeholders, the ETC and graduate students who potentially could

learn valuable skills and gain experience in this ever growing realm of ELT. Previous historical

perspectives of the ETC were elucidated earlier in this paper. But, some of their particular

concerns were not adequately addressed in the rest of the paper, which I shall do here. These

concerns were expressed in the interview that I conducted with the coordinator and student

manager of the ETC, attached in its entirety in the appendix.

One of the concerns expressed by the ETC director about the disadvantages of merely e-

mail tutoring are not pertinent to this study, since this study involved synchronous

communication with the tutee as well as the use of videoconferencing. According to

coordinator Boyd, the ETC has “far less reservations for something like Facetime or Skype,

especially if there was the extra added technical capacity to simultaneously evaluate text, to

mark text, to talk about text…in terms of communication, verbal and non-verbal cues that you


get from a live conversation.…My knowledge of comprehension, for example, gives me cues as

to expanding on explanations or on mood. Those are really important.”

The ETC’s primary concern with computer mediation is mostly around that of

establishing protocol and accountability, according to student manager Heid. “There probably

would need to be some kind of initial meeting for just those people, depending on how big that

cohort is. Some kind of initial meeting where we establish and go through the steps of this is

the program you are going to, this is who you contact if you’re having issues or which

frequently asked questions page you can go to for Google Hangouts, make some of those sorts

of resources available for people. Just kind of frontloading something, some kind of support, or

some kind of structure that people can use so that we at least have. If they’re using something

that we have stronger familiarity with, we’ll be better able to help when issues do arise if they

arise…. But I think that what would be very critical would be establishing some kind of program

that we endorse. You know, “use this for you tutoring sessions because these features have

some sort of pedagogical reasoning.” When you’re talking about having that audio, having the

shared document, you know, setting people up with some kind of yeah, like a structure that we

are familiar with and that we can, we feel comfortable with outcomes of people using that.”

There was some divergence of opinion concerning whether or not CM tutoring would be

more convenient than face to face tutoring. The inconvenience would be in CM not occurring

during the course of the regular academic day. Boyd suggested that, “I think one thing that’s

nice about this here is that it seems like for a lot of the graduate students that are doing the

tutoring and for the students that are being tutored, student writers, that that time is sort of

folded into their academic day.” Heid concurred, stating that “it becomes like that last


appointment that they have to at 6 o’clock that night after they get home and after their day is

over.”

But, alternatively, there is also the convenience of not having to come to SFSU for those

potential tutors who commute from elsewhere, Heid stating “it might also increase the number

of student writers that we would be willing to accept. So you know if I can do all of this

remotely or part of this remotely then I could do more. Because you know I live in the East Bay

and I commute blah blah blah, traffic, you know. I would imagine that we might be able to

increase the number of tutoring hours that we would be able to offer.”

Unaddressed in previous critiques is also the increasing role that technology plays and

has played in the life of the modern student, the comfort that younger students have utilizing

technologies like Google Hangout and communicating using technology. Though, the ETC does

have some concerns with older students who might not be as adept with the technology, “at

least a few ‘returning students’ and any graduate cohort who I think might not be as technically

savvy as younger people,” Body said. For the younger students, there could be some problems

in finding the space to do CM tutoring in a semi-private manner. “A lot of people we have here

don’t live alone so it’s not something you could do in the library,” Boyd stated.

The full interview of the interview with the ETC is attached as Appendix 1 or can be

listened to in its entirety at http://dcronyn.podomatic.com/entry/2015-12-07T17_27_48-

08_00.

Graduate Student feedback

An interesting and useful, though perhaps under-exploited, area to glean further data

was from graduate students surveyed about CM tutoring. Particularly noteworthy of this


http://dcronyn.podomatic.com/entry/2015-12-07T17_27_48-08_00


surveyed group is that they had also participated in CM tutoring through their Technology for

TESOL graduate seminar at SFSU and reflected upon their experience. Time, space, and

permission did not allow me to glean their journals for valuable information, but perhaps future

researchers could do so. The exact wording and timing of this survey, which can be seen in

Appendix 2 of this paper, could also have been perhaps improved. The most positive feedback

was around using CM tutoring as a way to improve teacher training, get used to the technology,

though some contexts would not be as good as others according to one student surveyed. Most

also thought that it is a more convenient way to tutor than face to face, with some saying there

is some possibilities for job opportunities through learning CM tutoring. Most also said that

overall, gaining experience in CM tutoring was overall worthwhile.

The support for CM tutoring did not however lead most of the students to consider it

over in person teaching or tutoring, with one stating that especially for writing contexts, in

person is far easier. But, it is interesting to note that some of these critiques of CM tutoring

depend on how skilled, or not, the tutor and tutee are in utilizing the medium. Perhaps with

enough training and experience, though, many of the students surveyed said that this would

improve the possibility of computer-mediated tutoring being a more viable situation. An

important consideration as well in this facilitating of graduate students and the ETC is professor

involvement, especially perhaps Dr. David Olsher, professor of Tech for TESOL class at SFSU, in

making CM tutoring a productive experience for students involved, an embedded part of the

curriculum as it already is.

Conclusion


After this study of the viability of computer-mediated tutoring at the English Tutoring

Center, I conclude that there is sufficient evidence and interest to further experiment with this.

With more tutors and tutees participating in this, best practices will become ever more

apparent. There are multiple benefits of continuing this project, including primarily: more

students being able to tutor for the center and important teacher training for future TESOL

professionals. Issues of comfort and ease of use with the technology will necessary differ from

person to person.

It is also important to recognize that computer-mediated tutoring carries some

significant contrasts from traditional in person tutoring, differences that can be a potential

benefit or hazard. Some of the technical and social differences are obvious, but subtle socio-

cultural differences could also provide important opportunities for ESL tutors to have a more

student-centered work sphere allowing for more cross-cultural comfortability. Also, there are

potential connections and money to be made internationally to students clamoring for English

tutoring over the internet. But, there could also be some changes in the training and additional

protocol necessary to manage this context, beginning with obvious upgrades in the mostly

modest skills necessary to successfully work in this brave new world.

In the end, though, there seems to be the research, experience, and willing participants

to at least continue the possibilities of CM tutoring at the ETC. Other important and interesting

research points could still be conducted, including probing participants better to find out

whether this medium is an effective means of tutoring. Seemingly, with some organization, the

possibility for conducting further research qualitatively or quantitatively is present. Comparing

user experiences in face to face and CM tutoring could be easily done in a controlled fashion


using the same tutor and tutee. Satisfaction across gender and various cultural or ethnic lines

would also be interesting points to further consider, ideas of equality and relative intimacy of

the two modes contrasted. Also, in a purely pragmatic sense, establishing connections with

commercial entities to exploit this tutor training could be a financial motivation for prospective

graduate students to try out CM tutoring.

An important next step as well will be in submitting this report to James and Tyler at the

ETC to get their thoughts about it, doing the important “member check” for this case study.

“Member checking is ‘a procedure used by qualitative researchers to check their

reconstructions of the emic perspective by having field participants review statements in the

researcher’s report for accuracy and completeness” (Duff, 2008, p. 171). This type of scrutiny

will also be an important step in my own growth as an applied linguistic researcher.


References

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Appendix 1

The ETC interview

(the full audio for this interview can be found at http://dcronyn.podomatic.com/entry/2015-12-

07T17_27_48-08_00.) Key portions of the interview are highlighted below.

M=me

T=tyler

J=james earl boyd

J: are you recording?

M: yeah

J: ok. James Warren Boyd, coordinator, English tutoring Center, coordinator

T: Tyler Heid, other guy (laughter)…

J: Boyd and Heid, sounds like an accounting firm. (laughter)

M: How long have you guys been working here?

T: 3 months

J: I started in…2004, so 11 years

T: I’m new this fall. I’ve been with the department for 2 years.

J: and he also tutored here before he started working

M: yeah, I remember last year I think Heidi was it?

J: Katie

M: and that’s who you took the place of?

T: all the way through the English Department, just following in her footsteps (1:33)

J: I started as a student assistant in the English tutoring center

T: Katie was following in your footsteps…I went through the exact same trajectory as Katie did

M: what have you seen over the years, from the beginning to here? Is there anything…any

major changes or pretty similar?

J: I think the biggest changes would be the availability of resources, money, so when I first

started as a student assistant, and this would have been in ’94 or ’95, we had my position plus




Tyler’s position plus a trainer for the tutees plus an electronic resource person who ran the lab

and 2 student assistants and then when I came back and took this job over, there was Kathy

(inaudible) who had been there forever…they didn’t have an office person, and they had 2

people..and they had been attritioning, there was no drop-in tutoring, so Dan and I started the

drop-in tutoring program. At one point we were able to pay for drop-in tutors…and then sort of

build up our program again, I assumed both Kathy’s position (3:39) and the other person who

was the grad student trainer and just took both of those up, so both the trainer and the general

oversight of the center became my responsibility…and then, so I get 2 classes of release time to

do my job as a lecturer and then when the-the what’s that called,? The global financial crisis

furlough thing came, they cut me back down to 1 and then they cut all of our finances for drop-

in tutoring

M: so, you lecture in addition to this?

J: yes, both

M: what do you lecture? (4:33)

J: I’ve done English and Communication Studies, went back and got a second master’s degree.

So I have a master’s degree in literature and both certificates in writing and post-secondary

reading and another master’s degree in communication studies…so, and then we were able to

get that time back, I was able to get that time back, because it was ridiculous to get just one

class to do all that we have to do. The other thing is that we’ve been within the past 4 years

we’ve taken a lot more responsibilities here in the office for the directed self-placement.(5:11)

and the early start English programs. And that’s become sort of more and more what we do,

added on to what we do. Is that the answer you were looking for?

M: yeah, yeah, I didn’t know that…

J: what was really nice was that we were able to tie, make the case that you know those extra

responsibilities for DSE and ESP…am I using too many acronyms? The early start English

Program and the directed self-placement English program all of which are around first year

composition. So early start English is for students who need a little bit of extra help to start the

program and they do an on-line course. And the direct self program is the mechanism by which

students choose the first year composition and that they go in to by doing some explorations of


writing about a prompt and answering some questions and choosing what course they do

rather than being told what course they are supposed to go in to. So that now we have every

single (6:10) person who takes a first year composition course chooses that and we have to help

administer that. So, we were able to hire, increase, Tyler’s position by 30% in order to

accommodate those needs around his job description.

T: especially advising capacity for those students that are lost and confused after they’ve found

ESP or haven’t done an ESP in a lot of cases

M: and I know too that it’s a lot of this stuff is in your flyer, but I guess just from you guys to

hear what the main, what you think the primary goals of the tutoring center are?

J: let me give you..where’s the..

M: I also have these (showing flyers)…

J: actually, this is real helpful too (hands me flyer)…having the numbers…you know I think that

we’re a lab for both undergraduates who are taking writing (7:21) courses here at San Francisco

State in the English Department, specifically 104, 105, 114, 214. And also a laboratory for

graduate students who are enrolled in our certificates and graduate student programs,

specifically those enrolled in 704, who as part of their curriculum work with at least 1 student…

and that instructor varies, but a lot of instructors will have them write case studies on students

as part of that course…and if graduate students tutor 2 students a week, which is 2 hours, then

they get a unit of credit, they get 899 credit, which appears on your transcript, which is a good

thing to have…so our mission is two-fold, our mission is to provide extra academic support for

those students who are in our writing courses…so that those student writers can get up with

macro and micro issues of writing whole essays and paragraphs down to even sentence level

issues…we try to help these students by addressing a balance of those issues within the

tutoring sessions.

M: I’m trying to get a sense for the statistics. Do you have a sense that most of the students, is

it ESL or 1st language speakers?

J: I think most of our students are Gen 1.5. Is that what you would say?

T: absolutely. I’d say probably like 80%.

M: great, just a ballpark there


T: if I were to hazard a guess. Then probably like 10 and 10 for ESL and native.

J: yeah, about 10 for native

J: the vast majority are 1.5 (9:25)

M: and how many hours do people usually do, tutors and tutees, come in for in a week? Is there

a general around that?

J: I’d say a ballpark would be 1 hour for the students a week and 2 hours for the tutors

T: yeah, definitely

M: okay, yeah, shifting gears now, toward the- yeah can you say about how many tutors and

tutees?

J: I can tell you exactly, actually on your form right there (points to form)…here’s our totals

board (goes to dry erase board on wall) for this semester we have 36 tutors 68 student writers,

or tutees, and we’re servicing 25 instructors. (10:27) of those 68 students, they come from

about 25 different writing instructors…and those are here, towards the bottom (points to

bottom of flyer)…(inaudible about drop-ins)

M: it’s mostly people scheduled, right?

J: it’s mostly one on one tutoring

M: yeah, regular…how much is drop-in?

T: there are 8 drop-in tutors doing 26 hours or so…no, not 26, 26 appointments

J: so, they’re half hour appointments, half-hour drop-in appointments (11:26)

M: do people take advantage of drop-in?

J: it’s seasonal, hard to say in terms of when in the semester, though during mid-terms it comes

and goes in waves. It’s when papers are usually due….so like 6th week, then 3 after that and

then definitely the last week of class…they’re marginally used. Tyler just set up an online

appointment system and that’s been increasing the amount of drop-in tutors that we have…(to

Tyler) is there a way to track how many appontments?

T: I mean I could just do it manually…I don’t know about getting

J: I mean through that program

T: I could play with it.

J: that would be helpful if we could


T: that would be really helpful

M: do you think looking at that overall, is it more…if there were any more expansion, would it

be needing more tutors or more tutees?

T: tutors.

M: more tutors?

T: we perpetually have more students that need tutoring than we are able to place.

M: what would you say is about the number of tutees that you are not able to place?

T & J: it depends on the semester, really depends on the semester

T: probably about 20 this semester. 70 that we we placed. 20 that we placed and then gave up

their placement.

J: 20?

T: probably, about that, yeah (13:05)…and a lot of that was just like non-response, the shuffle in

the first weeks.

J: really.?

T: yeah, people not showing up and then getting contacted.

J: seems high to me.

T: yeah, I’d say 15-20,and then about another 15-20 that weren’t placed at all, had no option.

(13:41)

M: so , I guess just shift over a little bit to online tutoring. And without really going in to the

details of anything I’ve found out, the research, what would be your reservations or questions

about online tutoring? Is there anything in particular…how that would fit or whether that could

fit, or is that like a whole nother realm?

J: are you talking about an online tutoring experience that is synchronous and face-to-face?

M: well, you know what, it doesn’t have to be actually.

J: because my answers would vary. If it was asynchronous and they were just, you can tell my

bias already, communicating by e-mailing (14:53) or posting, and then the tutor is evaluating

their text, not in live time, then I think there’s a lot of positive pedagogy that is lost in that

process.

T: definitely


J: I’d be more, I’d have far less reservations for something like Facetime or Skype especially if

there was the extra added technical capacity to simultaneously evaluate text, to mark text, to

talk about text. So I think that would be far more advantageous. Because I think that the idea of

just first of all in terms of communication, verbal and non-verbal cues that you get from a live

conversation which increases as the instructor (16:14) …my knowledge of comprehension, for

example, gives me cues as to expanding on explanations or on mood. Those are all really

important.

M: yeah, conversations

J: and you’re having a conversation about writing. So anytime that you’re using a mediated

form of communication that has the potential for having more noise, i.e. less understanding,

and thus comprehension, I think that you’re reducing the learning experience in that.

M: yeah, I totally agree. It’s something that I’ve been experimenting a little bit with, but

another platform that I’ve found to be really useful is actually something the tutee, if the tutee

knows more than the tutors. I know that teachers are facing the same thing.(17:12) as far as

technology. You know what I mean? Especially with international students….Google hangouts

was actually a very…we ended up using that one in the end because you can also do that

synchronous with Google docs

T: right the text with Google docs

M: yeah, I’ve never used it before, and we were even sharing the doc and we could correct

things, highlight things to look at.

T: so you can see each other at the same document as well?

J: and you could see each other’s faces as well?

T: or in the background so that you could hear each other talking, working on the same text?

(18:00)

M: it’s interesting, it’s another issue that I experimented a little bit with but was whether or not

facial…I would have to say that she is pretty advanced, she is looking at law school, though, so

things like speech and stuff were pretty miniscule, some things I’d be a little more comfortable

in the future describing what kind of problems there were like stress, slight problems in word

stress, but for written documents…I can’t really make any conclusions, but we did talk about


how some times if you don’t have the camera, it can be a little less distracting, actually. (18:53)

sometimes we were finding that out. It was nice to be able to talk things through. But the

camera was nice in the beginning, too, for making it a little more human and stuff.

J: but you still had the audio for the whole process?

M: yeah, for sure, yeah, definitely…and we were talking a little earlier, one time when it was

inexplicably not very good, we couldn’t figure it out, the audio, so you know that’s

J: so you noticed it and it made a difference?

M: what was that?

J: you noticed it and it must’ve made a big difference or you wouldn’t have continued to try to

fix it, having crappy audio.

M: yeah, it was just 1 episode and it was exactly the same circumstances as other times and it

just didn’t…we met 4 times and 1 of the times was..pronunciation issues, you might have some

issues…the thing is I’m not sure technically even around such specific bandwidth issues, which I

haven’t really looked into as much as I could, maybe look into…anyway, I don’t want to get too

far away from(20:17) this thing, so…so, I guess the concern, the synchronous concerns, what do

you think some of the synchronous concerns might be…and again, some of these technical

issues we’ve talked about…

J: what I mean is I have a definite preference for synchronous communication as opposed to

asynchronous

M: I guess what kind of things…if this would be something to try, or attempt, what kinds of

things would have to be resolved in your minds, whether it’s worthwhile or not, even on an

experimental basis?

T: I think the first issue I foresee would be accountability. (21:30)

J: that’s exactly what I thought

T: and that would be a lot on the student but on the tutor as well because you have a couple of

sessions and then suddenly the buy-in is there, but I can see that being more difficult and

rapport, that happens pretty organically in the face to face sessions we do here…and I mean,

I’m thinking about how often I play the role of go-between between student and tutor and it’s

not that frequent, but issues do come up sometimes. Where someone comes to me and says


hey, can you get in contact with this person, I haven’t been able to and their phone number.

And so that falls to me because of the “eppa, eppa” you know the protections of information

(22:30). So I could see some of those things, logistical things, maybe coming in to play, just in

terms of yeah contact between student and tutor and accountability of the students….i think

we’d have to have some kind of pretty well established methodology for exactly how and when

the meetings should be happening.

J:protocol. We’d have to have it. that’s a very good point. We’d have to establish a protocol.

T:that’s the word I was looking for. That would alleviate the second issue part of the issues I

was talking about.

M: what about just on your part? You’re already taxed for resources and time. Is that as much

of a concern? Or do you think it would be something…

T: Resources would not necessarily be as much of a concern with us because I would think that

the people that would be doing this would already be set up for it. Would have the hardware

already that gives them the capacity to be doing these things.(23:44) Because that’s not really,

if that was on us to provide, I don’t think it would be realistic at all.

M: yeah yeah

J: yeah, no way.

T: set up 6 computers in soundproof rooms that’s just totally beyond the realm of possibility.

M: no, no.

J: you might want to think if that’s an issue in terms of like time, if they’re already on campus. I

think one thing that’s nice about this here is that it seems like for a lot of the graduate students

that are doing the tutoring and for the students that are being tutored, student writers, that

that time is sort of folded into their academic day. And I think that if you extract that. Which it

seems like it would do. It has the advantage of being flexible, but the disadvantage is it’s not

folded into their day that way.

T: it becomes like that last appointment that they have to at 6 o’clock that night after they get

home and after their day is over.


M: yeah, it’s interesting to hear some of these similar issues with distance learning. Especially

actually in international settings sometimes. Talk about trying to line up schedules and things

like that. But, um, okay, that sounds definitely interesting for sure.

T: have you had any issues with accountability? I know that Natalia seems really motivated. She

approached me late in the semester and was really adamant about wanting to get connected.

M: I don’t think it’s been so much of an issue. I think sometimes (25:32) with only like, we met 4

times and we’re going to meet 1 or 2 more times, really playing with some of these things, it’s

not like…I was thinking that flexibility somehow would be a good thing to have, but having a

solid time also, you know what I mean?

J: um hmmm

M: and I’m not sure exactly…I want to go to her, that’s actually one of the questions I was

thinking about asking her is about some of those scheduling issues, um because-

J: did you have a solid time?

M: yeah, yeah, it was every, well the first meeting we did in person and after that we just

started doing it Wednesday evenings and um it was a couple times for her house and then a

couple times it was through, she took a break like out into the hallway or something or last

night she was over in the Galleria (26:42) over there. So it was pretty much at the same time

but it did shift a little bit from I think the first week it was 7 and the next week was 6, you know

6 o’clock in the evening…but the number of times to meet, the flexibility, these are the kinds of

questions that I would have a little bit, but somehow I don’t know if that would be different

necessarily for online versus here. It seems like pretty much you guys here like to have a

scheduled time that they meet.

J: yeah, absolutely.

M: yeah, and…

J: but if they want to change it, our policy is that you know, go ahead, we’re fine with you

changing it to another time, um, prefer that you meet here in the center here for safety

reasons, for lack of a better word. You know we don’t want people meeting their tutees in a

romantic Italian spot. (27:55) But if they want to change their time, we’re fine with that, just let


us know when it is, because that sort of in between communication that Tyler was just talking

about earlier.it helps us to know what, when. Who is supposed to be where when.

M: and maybe do you guys have problems like too many at the same time. Is that ever an issue

really?

J: not up until now. We have the capacity to accommodate 8 pairs of tutors, so that’s 16 people

at a time. So that’s a lot. And the most that we have at any 1 time this semester, I believe, is 5

pairs.

T: yeah.

J: plus a drop in tutor. (28:42)

M: um, what would you guys think, just on its surface, too, just thinking off the top of your

head, for online tutoring, technical or training. Would technical issues, like people having

certain technical capabilities. Or does it seems like almost default that people can use Google

hangouts or things like this or Skype or something?

J: so you’re talking about literacies?

M: well, just like computer literacy.

J: so I think that could be. We have at least a few quote end quote returning students and any

graduate cohort who I think might not be as technically savvy as younger people in their same

cohort. I think it might also more than literacies would have to say just with equipment. Um, I

don’t think sometimes, or space. Like a lot of people we have here don’t live alone so it’s not

something you could do in the library. (29:56) (to Tyler) I don’t know, do you have any other

concerns?

T: no, I mean that’s kind of what I was thinking of in terms of like the protocol, a uniform-

J: -and the students too, right?

T:- and instructors. There probably would need to be some kind of initial meeting for just those

people, depending on how big that cohort is. Some kind of initial meeting where we establish

and go through the steps of this is the program you are going to, this is who you contact if

you’re having issues or which frequently asked questions page you can go to for Google

Hangouts, make some of those sorts of resources available for people. just kind of frontloading

something, some kind of support, or some kind of structure that people can use so that we at


least have. If they’re using something that we have stronger familiarity with, we’ll be better

able to help when issues do arise if they arise.

J: I’ve never used Google hangout so I’m very interested.

T: I’ve got a couple of friends. I did it once for a tutoring session last semester and it was like

you were talking about. We had the document, but I don’t think that, we shared a document

but then we were on the phone. So it was like we were doing 2 different things.

M: yeah, I just sort of shrunk the screen.

J: so how is it different from Google docs? (31:28)

T: so Google hangouts is the videoconferencing feature-

J: yeah, I got it, okay.

T: and then Google documents is the you know you can use the share to edit, do collaborative

edits. Yeah, so we weren’t actually on Google hangouts, but we were using a Google document.

And I was saying, “look what I’m doing here, do da da, and then you can go uh, why’d you –

M: also, let me be clear, this is the first time I have ever- I actually used Skype a couple times,

but yeah, this is the first time I ever used Google hangout. Actually, you know Google docs,

people send me Google docs, which I read, but actually sharing, using it for sharing documents,

never done that before.

T: I lived on Skype for 6 months.

M: oh yeah, you did, okay

T: this relationship, so…but it’s evolved since then. Now it seems light years ahead of Skype.

Voice activation and everything. But I think that what would be very critical would be

establishing some kind of program that we endorse. You know, “use this for you tutoring

sessions because these features have some sort of pedagogical reasoning.” When you’re talking

about having that audio, having the shared document, you know, setting people up with some

kind of yeah, like a structure that we are familiar with and that we can, we feel comfortable

with outcomes of people using that. (33:00)

M: and I can’t necessarily say this is the best. A little bit of it is because my tutee, she uses

Google docs and Google hangouts, I said, you know, ok. I don’t know if Skype does these things

too, but it seems weird having an e-mail account and then you have this and then you got that


and then you’re storing you’re docs, you know what I mean? Just like with the Google it’s all

there. That was the thing. But yeah, internationally, I called my girlfriend, but um Skype is not

always, and this is not really to consider here, so much, but some of these platforms are not

usable internationally so much, or it’s difficult. I don’t really think that would be an issue here. I

don’t you’d have people doing that through the Center, it would be a significant departure from

this.

T: yeah, any non sf state student (34:04) type situation.

M: yeah, so I guess, a little bit related to that, related to the technical requirements of people

using it, is does it seems really that much for people, in your experience, that there’s people

that um, might not be able somehow to come in here and that could utilize online tutoring that

much, or would it be more like somebody like me, I’m in a class, oh, I need to do something for

the 724 class, I need to do online tutoring, you know what I mean?

T: people express interest, there were 1 or 2 instances this semester when somebody came in

and said that this is my schedule, it’s really limited, but if you do remote tutoring then I can

have this much more availability (35:06). And a couple of the people, I think one or it was a

couple of people. One person ended up not being able to be placed, but she had more

availability, she lived in the East Bay or something and couldn’t get into campus except for 2

days a week because of work, yada yada. So I think in those instances there are people that

would specifically look for remote tutoring.

J: and it might um, it might also increase the number of student writers that we would be

willing to accept. So you know if I can do all of this remotely or part of this remotely then I

could do more. Because you know I live in the East Bay and I commute blah blah blah, traffic,

you know. (36:03) I would imagine that we might be able to increase the number of tutoring

hours that we would be able to offer.

T: Yeah, I think so. I think tutors would be open to it, for that reason.

M: yeah, I just conceive of my own circumstances where I live in the East Bay, that’s probably

the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

T: yeah, most of the people in the center do not live in san Francisco.

M: oh, okay.


T: a lot of people in Daly City, a lot of people in the East Bay.

M: guess it’s the break in the middle of the day or something (36:43)…and let’s see, I just I

guess I had just one, I was wondering too, I have these documents, I am trying to remember,

which ones when I came walking in, which ones were the ones that I was given, I’m trying to

remember myself.

J: There’s the Tutor Manual and there’s the Ready, Set, Tutor! Those are from our first

workshop. And then there’s the Grammar Slammer and then there’s one Focus Pocus.

T: we’ve probably got some of those floating around.

J: Let me see if I can get you one.

M: That would be great, thanks. But this is like people come here,unfortunately here I am

asking you about it here, like last semester, coming in late.

T: James actually runs tutor training sessions. They’re an hour and a half, usually an hour and a

half meetings, workshops, they run through several exercises. They basically go through the

packet, look at several of the pedagogical things that we emphasize. (37:50) steer towards

skills-based training, away from copy-edit, copy-editing tendencies. Really the whole purpose of

tutoring is to get people to not need tutoring, right?

M: put yourself out of a job there. I noticed this too. This was at the Grad reading room. (hold

up flyer) is this the main outreach?

T: we go to classes. We go visit all the grad seminars basically at the beginning of the semester.

You may have seen me! What are you taking?

M: I’m taking with Dr. Abeywickrama, I’m taking a speech class. I don’t know if it would be

related to that. I don’t think there was a 730 this semester that was offered.

T: there’s some where the instructors say like,” don’t bother,” but I go to a lot of lit courses, try

to recruit there. I go to pretty much all the classes that are tied in to the certificates. Both the

reading and the comp I make sure to go to those courses.

J: here’s the sentences one (hands me the packets)

T: yeah, it’s mostly face to face recruiting, strong-arming friends into doing it. “you know you

want to tutor for this semester.” (39:36)


M: it’s funny, cuz I remember for my class, the class I’m taking with Dr. Olsher, you know, it’s

part of the class, you’re supposed to be doing online tutoring, but from what I recall, I think for

some reason he was steering us away from a localized setting, that somehow it hadn’t worked

at certain times in the past, or people for whatever reason, and I can’t recall off the top of my

head, he was trying to have people set up with actual distance, you know what I mean, you

know, we’re not talking East Bay distance, and I can’t remember exactly, but maybe he’ll be

somebody that can be convinced that …

T: do you guys embed? Do you, I had thought that TEFL was really big on grad students being

embedded in ESL courses. (40:36) With certain courses.

M: yeah, I think there is, actually I think there is one that’s related, but I’m not sure what the

difference is so much…I know you have some there’s some learning center, the LAC…

J: The Learning Assistance Center.

M: that one, I think that one.

J: what I’m talking about is my understanding was, say that there is a, what’s the equivalent of

104? So, say there’s a freshmen 201. They would attend that 201 class and those would be their

students. Is that not happening?

M: I think so, yeah. I haven’t been having to do that because I taught in the past, so I got

waivered out of the preliminary teaching, we have different practicum sort of thing, but I got

waivered out of that one because I’ve taught in the public schools before and a couple of

international experiences so they said that seems like good enough. But I think that Dr. Olsher

has a couple of his classes that he has people tutor. But I think it is the practicum generally.

J: I need to prep for my next class, so um…

M: yeah, that was my last question. Just if you had any final comments to add.

J: well, I’m really glad that you did this. I’m super curious as to what your results and

observations are and how it worked for you. (42:27) So I’m really glad that we’re able to do this

collaboration and it is certainly something to think about in terms of the future and we’ll be

very interested to see what your experience was with it.

T: I’d definitely like to talk to Natalia as well. I’d like to see what that survey, if I could get it

from you. Or I could shoot her an e-mail, if you wanna let her know that’s coming. I talked to


her about it initially when I talked to her about the situation, so it shouldn’t be totally out of left

field. I’d like to get her feedback as well.

M: you know what might be interesting actually, cuz I haven’t given it to her yet, I do have a list

of questions, though, I wanna talk to Dr. Olsher a little bit. Maybe it would be interesting if I

sent the questions to you and if you had any on top of it, you know what I mean? So that we

can try to benefit from some of the questions that you might have or something.

T: absolutely.

M: I guess that’s it. Thanks so much. I appreciate what you guys are doing and the opportunity

to work with you.


Appendix 2

Graduate Student survey

What do you think about computer-mediated tutoring at this stage of your studies?

• Good teacher training? _________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

• Convenient? ____________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

• Job possibilities? ________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

• Perhaps better than in person? _____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

• Overall worthwhile? _____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________


Appendix 3

Tutee survey questions

1. What activities were most and least useful for you?

2. How might the tutoring have been improved? (eg. Longer or shorter sessions, more or

less frequent meetings, etc.)

3. Did you feel more comfortable meeting in person or online?

4. Do you feel more equal with the tutor in person, online, or no difference?


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